When you hear people say that the album concept is dead, don't believe them. It is only artists and record companies who repeat it who are not capable of having a vision bigger than a single. And don't even think it's necessary to blurt out tracklists full of featurings to guarantee an album because the good ones, for a long time, don't need to shout it to the world. In the end, this whole issue can always be reduced to the usual axiom: music must not only be well packaged, but it must contain a vision.
A phrase that well summarizes the 16-year career of Tyler, The Creator – yes, the boy is only 33 anyway – who since that first tape in 2008 with his Odd Future crew (members include Frank Ocean, Earl Sweatshirt, Syd ) a Chromakopiahis latest studio work released last night, has continually reinvented his figure, beyond American rap in ideas and aesthetics. An album released on a Monday, strange to say, but not for Tyler. «Records should be released at the beginning of the week when people have time to listen to them, not on Friday with the weekend approaching», he explained in the past, insisting on the importance of time as a fundamental concept for the listener and the artist.
“You thought I was dead” he repeats like a mantra in Thought I Was Dead making fun of the haters who thought he was “dead” because for the first time in his solo career he had not respected the two-year gap between the release of his albums. For Chromakopia it was necessary more timean additional year (open heaven!), but the result is clear: no Tyler album has ever been so dense, in sounds and lyrics. Tyler has completed his maturation. Or as he raps: “The greatest to come out of this town since Kenny (Kendrick Lamar, ed), now it's factual.”
Also Chromakopialike the two previous albums, starts with a disguise. If the last one had been Sir Tyler Baudelaire of Call Me If You Get Lostpreceded by the man with the blond wig Igorin Chromakopia Tyler becomes St. Chroma, a masked character with a very particular haircut based on the story The magic cabin by Norton Juster. A trick that is more aesthetic than dramaturgical, however, necessary precisely for the realization of that vision which, from the first trailer published a few weeks ago, attracted the public by transporting it to another parallel universe, a universe in which we can also find Ayo Edebiri (yes, the protagonist of The Bear) in a part of the video of the beautiful first single Noid. A coordinated image that extends from the iconography of St. Chroma to the artwork and videos with retro sepia photography on which green capslock writing stands out. Left behind the acid green of Brat summerit's time for the thick green of Chromakopia autumn.
Chromakopia it is, to all intents and purposes, an album to listen to (and be listened to) from start to finish. The sound however varied – alone Noid inside it passes by a sample of music from Zambia, Nizakupanga Ngozi of the Ngozi Family of 1977, to almost prog rock hints, from quotes from his master Kanye West to Tyler's funk/soul trademarks – it is solid and cohesive, also thanks to the production entirely handled by the artist and the recurring presence of his mother Bonita Smith, narrator who accompanies the listener throughout the entire listening session. Not just a guide, but a leading role, a bridge that leads us into the most intimate part of T, the nickname with which the rapper refers to himself throughout the album.
And so are born what are so far the most introspective and vulnerable songs in the career of the Los Angeles rapper, who now addresses the great themes of life that 30 years bring with them. Like Himdedicated to the father he never knew (“It's my fault, not yours, not his, it's mine, forgive me”, the mother will explain at the end of the song), Hey Janewith the most successful lyrics of the songs in the setlist which sees the rapper talk about an unexpected pregnancy from a personal point of view and that of his girlfriend (“Hey Jane, who am I to whine and complain? It's you who will have to face all the physical changes and mental / it's your choice in the end, I'll support you no matter what,” to which Jane responds, “Hey T, I'm scared too, it was so hard to tell you, tell you the truth / I didn't want to say it, when I look in the mirror I feel I feel I have failed”), Darling, Iwhich deals with the theme of sexuality, monogamy, relationships (“Everyone is different, it's not just a question of sex / every person is different and everyone brings something different to a relationship / and I want you to be able to explore all of this too ”), Tomorrowon fear for the future (“The thought of having children stresses me out”) e Noidan outburst about the uncontrollable paranoia that the rapper lives with on a daily basis (“I'm paranoid, I drive around the neighborhood with my eyes fixed on the rearview mirror”).
To hit of Chromakopia It's also Tyler's constant changes in voice that seems to want to underline this rediscovered (or discovered) intimacy in new timbres that often make us wonder if it's really him rapping certain verses or singing certain choruses. The cavernous voice that had launched him with Goblins is used here in a much more “useful” way, becoming a counterpoint that brings us back to earth when these new vocalities hover too far away (as in Judge Judy or Tomorrow).
In addition to his mother, a series of collaborations accompany Tyler. «There will be no featuring» he declared, this time misleading us, before the album's release. The fact is that the featurings, although not reported in the lineup or on the streaming platforms, are there and are tasty: Childish Gambino, Daniel Caesar, Teezo Touchdown, GloRilla, Doechi, Lil Wayne, Sexyy Red, Schoolboy Q, Willow and Santigold. They never have main roles, like Mr. St. Chroma, but they all play (excellent) supporting roles. Doechi bites the beat of Balloonone of the strangest ones Tyler has ever made (and which vaguely recalls Gorillaz), as does GloRilla in the club hit Sticky in which Sexyy REd and Lil Wayne also participate. Donald Glover, on the other hand, may have given us one of the last featurings by Childish Gambino in the outro of I Killed You.
In these three years Tyler has taken the time to think, reason, reflect. Time to be an artist. Chromakopia it is thus his most successful album, yet another step forward in a career that in 16 years has always and only looked forward. On this album, Tyler, The Creator proclaimed himself the second best artist to come out of Los Angeles after Kendrick Lamar. But what if first place was a tie between the two?
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
